IdiomNatureEnglish

give someone a snow job

Meaning: To give someone a description of something or someone that is unrealistically attractive and positive.

Example: “The salesman gave us a snow job about the used car's condition.”

Origin: American military slang from the Second World War, describing an elaborate, persuasive piece of fiction a soldier might spin for a superior officer to talk his way out of trouble. It builds on an older figurative use of "snow" that was already established by 1880: "snow someone under," meaning to overwhelm them, the way heavy snowfall buries everything beneath it. A "snow job" applies that same idea of burial to speech — enough persuasive, distracting talk piled on to bury the inconvenient truth underneath it, out of sight the way snow hides the ground.

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